High court RMT strike ruling attacks democracy

High court RMT strike ruling an attack on democracy

Anti-trade union laws: “repeal and give workers their rights back”

Militant union leaders, including Bob Crow, building general election challenge to ‘big business’ parties & their anti-union laws as the Trade Unionist & Socialist Coalition (TUSC)

For the second time the anti-trade union laws brought in by Thatcher and Major and maintained on the statute book by Blair and Brown have been used to quash the democratic rights of tens of thousands of working people.

First at British Airways and now at Network Rail.

Mick Tosh, RMT member and TUSC ppc for Portsmouth North said, “this is simply undemocratic. The right to strike is every worker’s most basic right and it is a right which needs to be defended.

“The pending action by rail workers was not only about defending jobs but about defending public safety.

“This undemocratic intervention is another clear example of the need to repeal the anti-trade union laws established by Thatcher.

“I am standing to repeal these draconian laws and give workers their rights back.”

Dave Nellist, former Labour MP and TUSC ppc for Coventry North East commented “these laws are designed to make strike ballots next to impossible to uphold in the courts if the employer chooses to challenge them.

“Its like giving the employer a silver bullet. That the anti-union laws are just a weapon for unscrupulous bosses and nothing to do with democracy is evident when you consider that this Labour government rules with just 22% of the popular vote.

“These laws are about backing up the consensus of the three establishment parties that ordinary people should pay the price for the bankers economic mess and that they will make it ‘illegal’ for workers to defend themselves if they disagree.”

Strike action and ballots are ongoing at British Airways, Network Rail, British Gas and across the civil service.

Many commentators are calling this a ‘spring of discontent’. This breakdown in industrial relations can only escalate after the general election, whoever wins, as the ‘axemen’ begin hacking jobs and services in the strongly unionised public sector.

TUSC is building a political voice for those trade unionists and workers sick of being attacked by the government.